India's Speedclimbing Sensation Deepu Mallesh

Deepu Mallesh, one of Asia’s best speed climbers, dreams of taking part in the Olympics. But for an Indian who wasn’t born into a rich family that’s an almost impossible dream. Outside the world of cricket sponsors hesitate to invest in athletes like Deepu. But the tight-knit climbing community rallied to support him via crowdfunding. Now Deepu is not only fighting for himself but for the development of climbing in India.

Report & Editing: Aditya Pande & Thomas Lemmer

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[manjunathmadabal]

I was born and raised in Bengaluru, yet I only just learned about him, and that too from an international news outlet. This is the reality.

[DrKapil]

All the best Deepu!
Had seen him climbing at a facility in Bangalore…since then have been following his progress.
Great prospects ahead brother.
Hope you win at the Olympics 🙏🏽

[karthika]

All the best Deepu Mallesh. Proud Kannadiga 💛❤
Try American Ninja if not Olympics and make us all proud 💪🏼

[rau]

Hope to see you at the podium in Olympics. We are here to support you financially. Very few people choose sports over money. Dont worry bother.

[agniswar]

I really appreciate his dream. Go on ahead Deepu ❤🇮🇳🙏

[arunchaturvedi]

We root for you, Deepu! Good luck. Go for the Olympics! Make us proud!

[hrushikeshghone]

All the very best, Deepu !!! You're an inspiration... Keep it up ❤🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳💐🎊💪🙏

[himeshthungaturthi]

Glad he spoke in Kannada, Generally Indian athletes some how try to speak in English even though they are really bad at it, inferiority complex to speak in their mother tongue

[seenuz]

Good luck brother God bless you all your dreams come true...👍🙏

[chetanbu]

What will bcci do with those enormous funds atleast they can help people like Deepu, these people tell they gained so much money from ipl why don’t u utilise it rather than giving to other countries like South Africa

[zebulunsalins]

He should be sponsored for the olympics by India. Target Podium Scheme what are you guys doing.

[ragas]

Deepu, neevu bari kannada da hemme alla pura bharat da hemme. Go for gold brother in the next Olympics.

[awd]

How Can we help him financially ?
Please provide his details..

Will Crowd fund to help this Talented Kannadiga.

[adityachopra]

Sponsors will put their money where the viewership is

[TheKukun]

in this 4 odd minute video, he utters his disappointment at Indian parents who prefer Cricket and how other sports flourish only if they have the wherewithal for the same, and yet DW features "Sports is for the rich" in the title snap, to make it quite clickbait-y and undermine Indians and Indian athletes.

DW, you reek of a colonial mindset, in spite of Germany being on the receiving end for the whole of 20th century.

[nabilalhami]

How is this video relevant to football? This YouTube channel is dedicated to football (soccer), yet you are uploading a video about climbing, a sport unrelated to football.

[kp-kqux]

Well its not DW if there is bo flavour of propaganda. Ok why dont you start by telling me which rich people take us sports in India because as far as i know all of them except likes of Abhinav bindra cime from very poor background. They became rich after they became successful. Saina nehwal's father had to move from his hometown, Neeraj Chopra was a JCO in the military. most of the hockey team comes from middle class families. Manu bhaker comes from a middle class family so whats the point of promoting this narrative?